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“No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it…. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government.”
—Samuel Johnson
By Daniel Kanu
In less than 24 hours, President Muhammadu Buhari’s storm-tossed government will come to an end.
As he bows out from office, it is not out of place to briefly examine the legacy he is bequeathing the country that he pledged he belonged to everybody and to nobody.
Upon the inauguration of Buhari as president on May 29, 2015, he promised to focus on three key areas: security, economy, and anti-corruption. It was in the areas that his campaign revolved and he gave Nigerians repeated assurances, swearing to deliver, particularly on security that posed a serious threat at the time.
It was at the point the country was on the edge, as efforts of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led government of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were perceived to appear feeble in containing the deadly aggression of the murderous Boko Haram sect.
Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), given its competence in the use of propaganda was right on hand to cash in on that perceived lethargy of Jonathan in tackling insecurity head-long. It boasted Buhari would end the onslaught in a matter of months. One of the high points and most horrific activities on the datebook of Boko Haram was the offensive at the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State when 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the premises of the school and were transported to the evil Sambisa forest.
Anger, frustration, and resentment were expressed at home and abroad and all eyes became fixed on Nigeria and the overdue rescue efforts.
Expectedly, APC latched on to the challenge to orchestrate the weakness of Jonathan’s regime security strategy.
APC announced and presented Buhari as the messiah, who will tackle all security ailments in the country, including stamping out Boko Haram insurgents. To boost their campaign rhetoric, the party fraudulently dressed Buhari in the garb of the daring Charles De Gaulle, the French General, who was lauded for his military exploits and later rewarded with election as the 18th president of France.
Sadly enough, Buhari failed to deliver on his promise to bring back the Chibok schoolgirls.
What Nigerians witnessed was a piece-meal ‘return’ of some pregnant, abused, bruised, and wasted remnants of those teenagers, some with children impregnated by those demented and demonic creatures in human form.
Even with Buhari’s boast that the Command centre of the Army will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain there until Boko Haram is completely subdued, such swagger could not stamp out Boko Haram in his eight years reign.
Though insurgency in the Northeast is reported to be greatly diminished, kudos to the deployment of A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets procured from the United States, the war has not ended as promised. While Boko Haram appears less active, their former allies, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), remains highly lethal, and the activities of the profiled over 120 militant gangs operating in that zone remain toxic.
The banditry in the Northwest, which developed and matured under the Buhari administration has remained undefeatable. Today, bandits are going after soft targets in schools, where they kidnap students with ease for ransom.
Fulani militants and bandits have taken over forests in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and parts of Kebbi states.
Latest reports show that in the North-central, villagers are still counting bodies after repeated rampage in Southern Kaduna, Benue State, Nasarawa and Plateau states.
Data from the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, revealed that 63,111 Nigerians were killed under Buhari’s watch; 27,311 in his first term, and 35,800 in his second term and still counting.
And in these eight years, the regime spent not less than a whopping N8 trillion on defence.
As of today, no part of the country is safe. The activities of Fulani herdsmen, kidnapping, unknown gunmen, ritual killings, banditry, robbery, armed struggle etc are all on a rapid increase.
Unarguably, the rule of law is a critical factor in empowering individuals, preserving peace, respecting individual human rights, and achieving greater economic prosperity.
One of the four pillars of economic freedom and prosperity in any country is a strong rule of law, which is seen as the bulwark of democracy.
Unfortunately, evidence abounds attesting to the scuttling of the rule of law in the Buhari-led government.
In the last eight years, several human rights abuses and violations have been recorded across Nigeria.
For example, in its Report, the United States Department of State issued a damning assessment of Nigeria’s Human Rights Report, revealing that impunity remains widespread at all levels of government in Nigeria. It noted further that the Buhari government lacks transparency. The assessment corroborates the Amnesty International (AI) Report.
Today, the power of the judiciary has been whittled down as Executive lawlessness; disobedience of court orders has been reigning supreme in the last eight years. Under Buhari, the country is devoid of the rule of law, and no justice. The Buhari government chooses the law to obey when judgment is delivered.
It’s good to say straight away, going by economic reports that the economic card of the Buhari administration is woeful.
This cuts across virtually all the economic indicators namely, poverty incidence, exchange rate, level of inflation, growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), debt burden, fiscal sustainability, and indeed the overall living standards of the average Nigerian.
He is leaving behind an economy struggling to survive. While the President’s men struggle to defend his policies and legacy, the average Nigerian, going by the Sunday Sun research, cannot be more excited to heave a sigh of relief and hope for better days.
Buhari, on several occasions, claimed he has fulfilled most if not all the promises he made to Nigerians during his campaigns. Citing its huge infrastructure spending, Buhari explained the high debt profile of his administration saying, “We do not act on infrastructure by accident. It has been a deliberate choice for our government as a tool to fight poverty, to create economic growth and employment, and to open the path of prosperity for our people.”
To many Nigerians, the investment in infrastructure, which most commentators say is lopsided, is seen to be at a huge cost to the people in terms of the debts that will be repaid over a long period of time and the implications for inflation.
No doubt, Buhari made efforts in the area of agriculture, and infrastructural development, but such had little or no impact on the people’s living standards.
Many Nigerians have lost hope in the ability of the Nigerian economy to guarantee their sustenance and means of survival. Virtually, everyone, except those linked to “men in power,” is getting poorer in Nigeria since the inception of the Buhari administration in 2015.
